[ultimate_heading main_heading=”The Grip of Change; and Author’s Notes” main_heading_color=”#1e73be” sub_heading_color=”#8224e3″ spacer=”line_with_icon” spacer_position=”bottom” line_style=”dotted” line_height=”1″ line_color=”#1e73be” icon_type=”custom” icon_img=”id^48|url^http://ashvamegh.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Ashvamegh-ICO.jpg|caption^null|alt^Ashvamegh Journal Icon|title^Ashvamegh ICO|description^null” img_width=”48″ main_heading_style=”font-weight:bold;” main_heading_font_size=”desktop:34px;” line_width=”3″ margin_design_tab_text=””]a new beginning…[/ultimate_heading]
Title: The grip of change: and, Author’s notes
ISBN: 978-8125030201
Author: Civakāmi (translated by herself from Tamil)
Publisher: Orient Longman, 2006
Page: 2017
Reviewed by: Shalini, Ashvamegh Contributor
Buy the book: Amazon
In the year 1958, the term Dalit Literature was first used in the conference of Maharashtra Dalit Literature Society (Maharashtra Dalit Sahitya Sangha) held at Mumbai and after 1960, this literature which is also considered as the voice of and for Dalit’s become more prominent. Dalit literature is not merely a literary form but it is a form of social protest, an assertion and an expression which describes Dalit life and experience, it is used as a tool to protest against the discrimination which Dalits are facing from the upper caste people from centuries. Most prominent Dalit women writers who become part of Dalit assertion are Bama Faustina, Urmila Panwar, P. Sivakami, Meena Kandasamy; these writers project Dalit women in their writings and throw light on their sufferings in their works.
Sivakami’s novel The Grip of Change is one of the examples of same, in which she has not only expressed the eagerness of Dalit youth towards the change but also projected exploitation of Dalit women by upper caste men and men of her own community. Sivakami has presented the sufferings of a Dalit which becomes more pathetic when a Dalit is a woman. Majority of Dalit women are poor, landless and wage labourers, they have to suffer caste discrimination as well as gender discrimination; they have been suppressed by the upper caste men and by the men of their own community. Moreover, this book is making its readers to understand the human-made discriminations and their results, how Dalits are getting subjugate by upper caste people since centuries, they feel like ‘other’ in their own land. The story deals with the lifestyle of Dalits, the youth of Dalits who are working for change; the change in social milieu compels women too, to change the set-up and raise their voice against the double oppression.
